Winzip help

[jessieticklish1]

Hello for some reason i can no longer open files through Winzip, i went to add/remove programnes and tried removing it but around halfway through deleting it i get a message

"Error1402. could not open key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/classes/winzip/defaultcon
verify that you have suffiecent acces to that key"

it then closes and does not remove it, ive also been to sites to try and download it again and i get the same message, anyone know what i can do?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

That's an odd one. You can certainly remove the key yourself in the registry editor but that is a path fraught with peril, as mistakes in the registry editor can make your system unusable. I will give you the procedure to delete the key if you so desire to do so. If you do so I recommend you then retry uninstalling it via Add/Remove Programs and seeing if it will remove everything. If not try a reinstall and then remove it. Otherwise you may be left with remnants of Winzip around.

-Go to Start and click "Run"
-Type "regedit" (sans quotes) and hit okay
-The registry editor will open. Navigate to the registry location the error specifies, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/classes/winzip/, by using the plus boxes next to entries in the registry editor (Which expands them).
-Once in the proper location, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/classes/winzip/, look for an entry on the right called "defaulticon" and click it once. Once highlighted hit the delete key which should remove it.
-If that doesn't remove it make sure you are logged in as an administrator. Note that if you are using Windows Vista I do not know if any of this will work.

If you prefer not to mess with the registry (Or all fails) then I suggest grabbing the free and equally (if not more) capable 7zip utility. It can handle RAR, ZIP, and a host of other compressed file formats. Note that while it can unpack/uncompress RAR files it CANNOT make RAR compressed archives. Available at http://www.7-zip.org/

 

[jessieticklish1]

"look for an entry on the right called "defaulticon" and click it once. "

The only one is called (default) type:REG_SZ , Data value not set
It wont let me delete it , and im not using windows vista

thanks for the help so far by the way

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Hmm ... while you're in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/classes/winzip/" take a look in the winzip folder/registry entry on the left. See if there's a plus next to it. If so, expand it and look for defaultcon there as another entry with a folder icon next to it. It may read "defaulticon" rather than "defaultcon" (A suspicion I have, not a sure thing). Try deleting that folder thing. If that doesn't work then for whatever reason you don't have permissions on that registry entry. Were you the one to install Winzip? By this I mean the following: are there any other accounts on your computer? Did one of them install Winzip instead of you? If so, log in as them and try deleting it.

If all that fails I suggest booting into Safe Mode and using the default "Administrator" account to try it. To boot into Safe Mode restart your computer and, just after it starts outputting a bunch of white text (As it normally does right after being turned on) start pressing F8 about once or twice a second until you get a menu. One choice should be "Safe Mode" or "Safe Mode (with networking)" or something similar. Choose one of those, let it boot, and choose the "Administrator" account, NOT your normal account. There shouldn't be a password unless you entered one yourself. Try the deletion then.

 

[jessieticklish1]

Yay i got it working, thanks so much for your help.